(1) Industrial Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer. More precisely, the present invention relates to a ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer which is useful in the optoelectronics field, particularly for various kinds of electronic optical devices, such as, display elements for electronic desk calculators, clocks, and watches, electronic optical shutters, electronic optical diaphragms, optical modulators, optical-path transfer switches in optical communication systems, memories, printer heads, and varifocal lenses, and which not only exhibits a ferroelectricity even at temperatures in the vicinity of a room temperature, but also has so fast response speed as to be able to display motion pictures, and also may be advantageously used as display elements for large size screens and curved screens.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, display elements employing low molecular liquid crystal has been widely used for digital elements for electric desk calculators, clocks, watches, and the like. In these fields for utilization, generally, the conventional low molecular liquid crystal has been disposed between two glass substrates precisely spaced in a micron order to be used. However, the adjustment of such a space has been impossible to be realized for large size screens and curved screens. In order to solve the said difficult problems, it has been undertaken, as one way, to develop polymeric liquid crystal, which can be molded itself (J. Polym. Sci., Polym. Lett., Ed. 13, 243 (1975), Polym. Bull., 309, 6 (1982), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 21479/1980, etc.).
However, these liquid crystal polymers generally have a low response speed of the changes of the transmission intensity and the like to the changes of the external factors such as electric field, and therefor, none of them have been satisfactory.
Further, regarding to the liquid crystal polymer disclosed in the above mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open, the polymer itself does not exhibits the properties of liquid crystal at a room temperature, and therefor, has disadvantage such that it should be heated at a temperature range above its glass transition temperature and less than the clearing temperature.